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Unique PhD journeys of Drs Maréve Biljohn and Modeni Sibanda

16 February 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

In nature, one often comes across cool and surreal phenomena. Experiencing rare happenings in the academia is an altogether different encounter. One that Prof Liezel Lues, Professor in the Department of Public Administration and Management at the University of the Free State (UFS), explains as winning the lottery.

Two of Prof Lues’ doctoral students – representing two different institutions – graduated in 2018. Four years later, on the exact same date, 1 March 2022, Drs Maréve Biljohn and Modeni Sibanda will take up their new positions, respectively as Head of the Department of Public Administration and Management at the UFS and Head of the Department of Public Administration at the University of Fort Hare.

Social innovation and service delivery

Dr Biljohn, currently Senior Lecturer in the department, did her thesis on the topic: Social innovation and service delivery by local government: a comparative perspective. With work experience in local government, Dr Biljohn had a good idea of the problems that underpin poor service delivery in this sphere of government.

Public participation in integrated development planning: a case study of Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, was the title of Dr Sibanda’s thesis. The study revealed how individuals and communities navigate forms of power and raise the critical consciousness of municipal residents, communities, and public officials.

According to Dr Sibanda, his study was motivated by the need to explore how public participation power dynamics influence Integrated Development Planning outcomes.

He believes by doing so, the complexity of how individuals and communities navigate forms of power in public participation platforms and spaces would be unravelled. Unravelling such public participation power dynamics, he says, would raise critical consciousness and address and challenge visible, hidden, and invisible forms of power on these public platforms and spaces. “Often public participation platforms and spaces neglect and ignore the capacity of such spaces to manage the pervasive, complex power dynamics among stakeholders in municipal strategic development planning processes. This focus to my PhD therefore sought to fill that knowledge gap,” adds Dr Sibanda.

Prof Lues says the value link to their research is buoyed in the South African Local Government. “They have both established a niche area that addresses the challenges South African municipalities face,” she adds.

“There is no doubt that they are suitable for the position of head of department at this point.”

Achieving a coveted status in their careers

On experiencing this unique journey, Prof Lues says: “Of all the relations, a relation between a promoter and a student is the most inspiring and admirable one. Any promoter takes the utmost pride when his/her taught students achieve coveted status in their respective careers. To me, it feels like winning the lottery – twice.”

News Archive

UFS receives R13,7 Million for Research into Prehistoric Organisms

2007-03-27

Some of the guests attending the launch of the research contract are: Dr Siyabulela Ntutela (Deputy Director: Biotechnology at the Department of Science and Technology), Dr Godfrey Netswera (Manager of Thuthuka and the Support Programme at the National Research Foundation (NRF)), Dr Esta van Heerden (Platform Manager and lecturer at the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology at the UFS), Mr Butana Mboniswa (Chief Executive Officer of BioPAD), and Mr Vuyisele Phehani (Portfolio Manager for BioPAD).
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

The University of the Free State (UFS) has been awarded a massive R13,7 million contract to conduct research into prehistoric micro-organisms which live under extreme conditions, for example in mineshafts.

This is one of the biggest research contracts awarded to the UFS in recent years.

The biotechnology research contract was awarded to the UFS by BioPAD, a South African biotechnology company that brokers partnerships between researchers, entrepreneurs, business, government and other stakeholders to promote innovation and create sustainable biotechnology businesses.

The project is endorsed by the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation (NRF), which contributes to the bursaries of the 17 postgraduate students on the programme.

The contract involves the establishment of a Platform for Metagenomics - a technique which allows researchers to extract the DNA from microbes in their natural environment and investigate it in a laboratory.

“Through this platform we will be able to understand deepmine microbial populations
and their potential application in the search for life in outer space. It is most likely
that, if life were to be found on other planets in our solar system, it would probably
resemble that which existed millions of years ago on earth. Apart from all this, these
organisms have unique properties one can exploit in biotechnological application for
South Africa and its community,” said Dr Esta van Heerden, platform manager and
lecturer at the UFS Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology.
She is assisted by her collegues, Prof. Derek Litthauer and Dr Lizelle Piater.

“The platform aims to tap into the unique genetic material in South African mines
which will lead to the discovery of new genes and their products. These new and unique products will find application in the medical field (anti-cancer, anti-bacterial en anti-viral cures), the industrial sector (nanotechnology, commercial washing agents and the food industry), environmental sector (pollution management, demolition of harmful metals and other toxic waste),” said Dr Van Heerden.

According to Dr Van Heerden, the Metagenomics Platforms stems from the Life in
Extreme Environments (LExEN) programme which was started in 1994 by Princeton
University in the United States of America (USA) in South African mines with grants
from among others the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and
the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the USA. Other international collaborators
on the project include Geosynec Consultants Inc. (USA), Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (USA), the University of Tennessee (USA) and in South Africa the
Universities of the Witwatersrand, North West and Limpopo and companies like BHP
Billiton, MINTEK and mining companies like Harmony, Gold Fields and AngloGold
Ashanti.

The research field laboratory of the Metagenomics Platform, which was situated in
Glen Harvey, was moved to the Main Campus of the UFS in Bloemfontein. “In this
way the university has become the central hub for all research programmes. We are
also the liaison between the LExEN programme and the various mining companies
involved,” said Dr Van Heerden. The new laboratory was introduced during the
launch of the research contract.

“Our decision to commit BioPAD to this project stems from the company’s commitment to advance human capacity development to strengthen South Africa’s research infrastructure. It is also part of our aim to create and protect intellectual property,” said Mr Butana Mboniswa, Chief Executive Officer of BioPAD.

Talking on behalf of the UFS senior management, Prof. Teuns Verschoor, Vice-Rector
of Academic Operations, said that the university shares the excitement to be part of
the exploration of unknown forms of life, the discovery of new genes and
their products and in applying newly gained knowledge to better understand our
universe.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl@ufs.ac.za
27 March 2007

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